Counting the Stars
by kirra13
Summary: Lucy is a sensible girl, so how come when she meets a random guy in a music store that is compleatly crazy, she falls head over heels. A Short Stack fan fiction!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter one.**

I like being alone, it's not that I don't have any friend or I'm afraid to leave my room, in fact I have one of the best friends you could ask for and I mostly try and spend as much time out of the house as possible, it's just that when I'm on my own I can do what I want whenever I want and I can think and day dream without offending anybody, but I suppose if a boy happened to come along I would at least give him a chance.

"Lucy, are you in there?"My step dad Kevin asked then stood quietly.

They always have to intrude when I'm about to engage in a deep thought about something important.

"LUCY" He really needs to learn to be more patent.

"God, no need to go psycho I'm right here "I said in an annoyed tone.

He opened the door just wide enough and tossed the phone at me, i made an attempt to catch it but it fell with a bang to the floor. I shot him one of my famous looks to kill but he had already left and closed the door.

I put the phone to my ear, "hello, Lucy speaking"

"Hey, it's Becca, were going shopping I'll be at you house in 5. Bye" She had hung up before I could ask her to explain.

Rebecca Mason or Becca as everyone calls her is my best friend. She's 17 and is the most creative person I know and well I suppose you could say that she's a little on the wild side.

I threw the phone at my pillow and walked over to my wardrobe, I put on a pair of hot pink skinny jeans and a white tank top, I pulled out a pair of sequinned heels and went to find my phone and wallet.

A few minutes later I heard a bang from outside and assumed Becca was here, she had recently got of her learners permit but is still adjusting to driving so mostly I offered to drive.

She was already leaning against my car when I got outside; she was wearing a canary yellow strapless dress and sky blue heels, a look that only Becca could pull off. Her hair was looking extra curly today.

"Hey Lucy, are you all ready to go" she asked with a smile on her face.

"Sure am, but May I ask why you so urgently need to go shopping" I asked with an equally sweet tone.

"Well, I brought two tickets to counting the stars music festival this morning, one for me and one for you of course" her smile now turning to a grin.

She truly was the best friend I could ever ask for, I have been saving for a ticket to Counting the stars music festival for about three month because one of my favourite artists Calvin Harris was performing, but I still hadn't got enough.

"OH MY GOD! Are you serious, I love you so much!" I ran towards her and hugged her for what felt like 10 minutes until she pulled away.

"so that's why I have to go shopping because Its this Saturday night and I don't have any spare time until then except for today to buy something to wear" she made her way around to the passenger's side of the car.

For a moment I worried because I hadn't brought enough money to buy a whole new outfit but then I remembered that I already had an outfit picked out to wear, but at least I could try to help Becca chose something even though I know she'll have no trouble, she always finds perfect outfits.

When we got there she lead me to one of her favourite stores it was a small boutique run by a guy who called himself Mitch, Becca loved shopping but she especially loved shopping here, so after an hour of looking around I knew she wouldn't mind If I quickly left to go to the music store a few shops away.

I wanted to buy the new album from Paramore, but after 10 minutes of looking I gave up and set off to find someone who worked there. About ten metres away a guy wearing black skinny jeans and a t-shirt with a cat on it was holding a pile of about 10 cds, so I assumed he either worked there or he would know where all the cds where anyway. I stood behind him "excuse me" he turned around and oddly had a giant smile on his face and trust me it wasn't just a smile it was the most largest smile I had ever seen.

"hello" he said then started to look around for something, "sorry I don't think I have a pen with me, so I can't sign anything for you unless you have one" I stared at him with a bewilder look on my face.

"Umm, that's alright I was just wondering if you could tell me what section Paramore was in?"

Now he was the one staring at me with an odd look on his face, he just stood there staring at me for another minute and then said "oh, it's over there in the punk/Emo section" I thanked him and walked in the direction he pointed me to.

After I had brought the CD I walked back to the boutique to find Becca, she was in the change room and Mitch told me to have a seat while I wait, that's why I liked Mitch he didn't feel the need to make petty conversation with me and I was grateful for that especially because all I could think about was how much my life sucked, I had just met the cutest guy I have ever seen in my life and he was a complete crazy person, I mean why on earth would I want some strange guy who may or may not have worked in a music shop to sign something for me, god.

When Becca finally found something we had lunch then went home, I waved goodbye to her as she swerved into the other lane then back into her own and made her way back home.

I fished around in my pocket looking for my key but I must have forgot it when I was leaving, I walked around to the side of the house and push my window up and across and climbed through onto my bed, I walked out to the kitchen and looked for something to have for dinner but there was nothing and I wasn't really hungry because I had a late lunch. I slowly walked into the living room and watched reruns of The City which I had already seen and when they started to become a blur I had a shower and put on my pyjama pants and a orange top, the clock next to my bed said it was 7.30 pm that meant my mum, Kevin and my little brother Patrick would be home from whatever adventure they went on today in about half an hour.

I turned off my light and laid in my bed, the sun hadn't fully set and the street light from outside made my room glow slightly but that wasn't what was bugging me, every time I closed my eyes all I saw was that crazy guy from the music shop, I saw his mesmerizing smile, his gorgeous eyes and the way his hair was so different from anything I had ever seen in my whole life.

I sat up in straight, what the hell was I thinking, obviously some of that guys crazy rubbed off on me because I have never ever like a guy unless I actually know him but I didn't even know this guy's name and my brain was trying to make me think I was in love with him.

I slid out of bed and pulled on a pair of green short and a grey hoodie, I climbed back out the window and mad my way towards the shops around the corner from my house, it was nearly dark as I walked into Coles and went to the chocolate Isle. As I was deciding between a violet crumble and a crisp bar a pair of bright purple and green sneakers caught my eye, I looked up to see who they belonged to and dropped both bars of chocolate.

The guy from the music shop was walking past with another blonde guy with similar scruffy hair, I quickly picked up my chocolate and followed them to the register, the blonde one left but the guy from the music store stood in line waiting.

I looked in his basket there was three tubs of nutella, a frozen pizza and a bag of skittles, if I said hi I wonder if he would recognize me, I was probly the first girl that has talked to him in ages considering he is crazy.

"Hey" I said shyly "I saw you at the music store today"

He turned to face me and smiled "hey, yer I remember you, you were the girl that didn't know me"

Completely crazy, why the hell would I know who he was. "Umm, I suppose" I said with disappointment seeping through my voice. "I see you like nutella" I said with a little bit of sarcasm.

"haha, actually that's my step brothers he can't get enough of it" he awkwardly pursed his lip in a smile then turned back around.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two.

Four days have passed since I was at the super market, and I'm really excited for the Counting the Stars music festival. My outfits all sorted. I'm wearing silver sequinned skinny jeans and a loose, one-shoulder purple top with my purple converses.

I've been trying to keep myself busy, so now my room is spotless and everything in my wardrobe is in a colour-coded order, but I still haven't been able to completely wipe his face from my brain. I think that if I just new one single thing about him, like his name, then he wouldn't be such a mystery and I could get on with my life, but that's never going to happen because I will most likely never see him again in my life.

I agreed to let Becca drive, seeing as she's only 17 she can't drink, but that wasn't really a big deal, because even though I'm 18 I don't really drink much either. It starts at 8.00pm, but Becca's picking me up at 6.30pm.

I went out into the living room and Patrick was sitting by himself in front of the TV. He was watching a show that featured a variety of animals having human personas.

"What're ya watchin', Patrick?" I asked with enthusiasm.

"Arthur." he said without looking away from the TV screen.

"Awesome. Do you want anything to eat?" I started walking toward the kitchen as I spoke.

"Pizza please."

I chuckled, "You want pizza for breakfast?" I asked accusingly.

"Yes, cheese only please." he said, completely serious. I walked over to the phone and dialled the number of the local pizza shop.

"Penny's Pizza, what can I get for you today?" she asked in a fake cheerful tone.

"One large cheese pizza please, pick-up" I decided if we were going to start eating pizza for breakfast I might as well drive.

"Ok, that'll be ready in fifteen minutes and comes to $7.50. Have a nice day." and with that she hung up.

I went to my room and found my keys and wallet and put on some clothes that where decent enough to go outside in.

"I'll be back in a minute, ok?" I said to Patrick.

It was an extremely bright day, and I hadn't thought of bringing my sun glasses. My car was parked out on the street, and as I was walking around to the driver's side I noticed someone standing across the road. He was wearing skinny jeans and a grey t-shirt. It couldn't be him, and if it was him then I figured that would be something along the lines of stalking.

I turned the key in the ignition and pretended that I needed to pull in the driveway next to where he was standing to get on the other side of the road. He was facing the other way, so I rolled down my window and made sounds that would appear to anyone else as a coughing fit.

He turned around, and my heart skipped a beat. Well, until I looked closer and noticed that the guy was actually just some random Asian. He looked at me in confusion and I smiled and quickly rolled up my window.

When I got to the pizza shop, I realized that I was about 10 minutes late and that the pizza was sitting on the counter. I paid for it, then stopped at the 7/11 to get mine and Becca's supplies for that night.

When I got home I gave Patrick his pizza and took two slices for myself. I went into my bedroom and ate in silence. Why was my mind going crazy over this boy I didn't know any better than I did the queen of England?! My last boyfriend I had when I was 15 broke up with me because he said I never thought about him or his feelings... And what if I never see him again, which will most likely happen because I have lived here my whole life and I just happened to see him twice in one day? Will I ever be able to forget about him or am I doomed to spend my life thinking about that hot crazy guy? The one that got away...

I was brought back to reality by the buzzing of my phone; there was 1 new message from Willow, a girl in my yoga class.

_Heyy, Lucy GUESS WHAT! My friend had a ticket she was selling for the festival tonight yayayaya! I'll see you there. xxxx_

I text Becca, then went and had a shower. When I got out the phone was ringing. I wrapped a towel around myself and ran up the hallway to get it.

"Hello?" I asked, out of breath.

"Heyy Lucy, its Becca." she said in a rushed voice.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Umm, I think we should leave as soon as we can for tonight, because I heard on the radio that there're major traffic jams!" she said, sounding worried.

"Oh, ok. Well, I'll start getting ready now, come pick me up in an hour?" She agreed and hung up the phone.

I walked over to my closet and got out my outfit. I put it on, and put all my stuff in my lime green over-the-shoulder bag. After I pulled on my Converse, I went out the front and lay down on the front path. I closed my eyes and watched the sun make an orange pattern on the back of my eyelids.

Beep, beeeep, beep, beep! I opened my eyes; Becca was staring impatiently from the driver's seat.

I hopped up and got in the car. Becca was wearing green shorts with a purple sleeveless hoodie and gold high top sneakers. Her car was littered with fast food wrappers, items of clothing and a large assortment of other random Items.

"Hey, are we ready to go?"I asked.

"Um, I suppose. What where you doing down there?" she asked hesitantly.

"Relaxing" I said plainly.

The two hour drive to the festival went by quickly because we were so excited. Becca had made a special CD for the drive and when we got there it was already packed. We parked about a kilometre away and started to walk towards the gates. People were swarming everywhere in groups and to the left of me was a group of about seven fifteen-year-old girls, all wearing matching singlets with some band written across the front and the rest covered with felt love hearts.

When we finally got through the gates we pushed through the crowds towards the main stage. There were still three hours till Calvin Harris came on, but there was still plenty of other great acts before. Our plan was to slowly make our way to the front, so buy the time Calvin came on we would be at the front.

When we were about a quarter of the way into the crowd my phone started ringing to the tune of Lady GaGa – Bad Romance. I pulled it out and read the screen. It was a text message from Willow;

_Lucy! I'm here. Come meet me near the Channel [V] tent! Xx_

I put my phone back in my bag and looked around for Becca. "Willow's here, we have to go get her."

As we were walking towards the tent, I noticed Becca freeze mid step. I looked back at her and she was staring wide-eyed at something behind me "What?" I asked, intrigued.

"Oh, my God! Look! Look over there, its Short Stack! I can't believe it!" I grinned at Becca's squeal, then turned to look. I'd only ever heard about this band, 'Short Stack' when Becca started talking about them which she liked to do a lot, but I had never actually seen a picture of them, so when I turned around all the hundreds of faces blurred into a swirl of sweaty teenagers.

"Where abouts?" I asked intently. I turned to look at Becca but she wasn't there. I quickly turned around, but I couldn't see her anywhere. There was a large group of people gathered just in front of me, so I assumed she must have gone over there to get closer to Short Stack.

I walked over to the group, but couldn't see her anywhere, so I decided to go around the back of the tent to see if Willow was there. I was walking closely behind a guy who was wearing shorts and a fluoro green singlet when he suddenly stopped and I crashed into his back. I fell onto my ass and was suddenly yanked back up by someone holding my arms.

I turned around and was standing an inch away, face-to-face with the crazy guy from the music shop.

"Thanks" I said a bit flustered.

"No problem. Are you ok?" He said sounding generally concerned.

"Umm, yer I think so. Haha" I felt my cheeks flush pink, "I was just looking for my friend. We were coming to meet someone, and then she saw this band, Short Stack, that she really likes, and then I turned around and she was gone." I looked up at him and he had a weird expression on his face "Are you ok?" I asked. He made a choked-laugh sound, then straightened up his face.

"Yeah, sorry. Do you want some help finding your friends?" I looked him in the eyes, then quickly took a step back.

"That would be nice, thanks." I turned and started walking towards the other side of the tent. I got on my tippy toes and noticed the top of some overly curly brown hair. I turned around to the guy, "I can see her." I said happily. I turned and started walking towards her, but was pulled back by someone holding my arm. I turned around.

"I just thought I should let you know my name."

I looked at him "Haha, yeah, that would probably be good. Well, I'm Lucy Stevenson. Nice to officially meet you." I stuck out my hand with a grin.

He put his hand in mine and said, "Nice to meet you Lucy. I'm Bradie Webb." We shook hands, then I turned to start towards Becca again.

"Hey, Lucy, where have you been? I was looking for you every where." said Becca in a worried tone.

"I was with my friend, Brad.." I turned around, but he was gone, "Um, I just ran into someone I knew." I said looking around.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

I spent the rest of the night desperately looking around for Bradie; I didn't even notice that Calvin Harris had appeared on stage until half way through his second song.

"He's amazing!" screamed Becca in one ear, I nodded enthusiastically but still kept searching the crowd with my eyes.

After Calvin Harris had gone off stage and another Emo wannabe band had come on, Becca pulled me away from the crowd and to a quieter section the middle, "Are you okay" she looked at me as if I was bright green or something, "I'm fine" I replied, "Okay then, well do you want to go find willow, its nearly time for the fireworks" she looked at me expectantly' "you go ahead I'm just gunna go get something to eat I'll call you when I'm done" I smiled at her then headed towards the food tents.

I went to the nearest one and brought a bottle of coke, after I paid for it I headed toward the hills, that was a part at the back of the show ground that when all the bands had finished playing all the people went up there to watch the fireworks.

I choose a spot near where there were only a few people sitting on blankets and sat down; I pulled my knees to my chest and looked up at the stars, suddenly someone sat down next to me.

"Shit" I muttered in surprise, Bradie was sitting no more than 20 centimetres away from me and looking at the ground.

"Hey, where did you go before?" I asked,

He looked up at me "I saw my friends and thought I should catch up with them before I lost them again",

"Oh okay" I said looking down at my feet,

"So tell me about yourself" he said smiling at me, I looked back at him and stared for a minute.

"Um okay, well my name is Lucy Stevenson, I'm 18 years old, i have a little brother named Patrick and I live with my mum and stepdad, umm and I suppose that's the important things" I said looking at him, "you forgot one thing" he said looking at me, "and what's that?" I asked, "Your boyfriends name?" he said it as a question, "I don't have a boyfriend" I said feeling the blood rush to my face.

We were both quite for a bit but it was a nice quite not an awkward one, I looked up at him because I could feel him looking at me,

"So what's your deal?" I asked him, he looked at me for a minute then replied, "Well my name is Bradie Webb, I'm 19 years old, My parents are divorced and I'm in a band with my step brother Andy and my other mate Shaun" there was a pause for a minute, "would I have ever heard of your band?" I asked intrigued, he stared in the other direction for a little bit then changed the subject.

"Your pants are super sparkly, there nice" he smiled at me; I smiled back then lay down on my back so I could see the stars.

Just as I had begun to relax a stream of bright green shot through the sky, followed by a stream of red then gold. The fireworks had started and I hadn't even gotten in contact with Becca yet.

Bradie laid down beside me and we watched the rest of the fireworks, I didn't notice till they were over that Bradie had grabbed hold of my hand, I positioned myself so I was facing him and smiled, he smiled back and started to close in the distance between us, I closed my eyes and "Lucy! Is that you?"I quickly jerked back and looked over my shoulder.

Willow was standing there with a grin on her face eyeing off, first me then Bradie; "sorry I didn't mean to interrupt anything "she said trying to stop herself from giggling.

I have only known Willow for about a year and a half but I have seen her drunk on many occasions, "Where's Becca?"I sat up so I could look at her, "Umm, well I was with her at the fireworks then I went to get another drink then I went back to the fireworks and she wasn't there, then I came looking for you and then I seen you with your boyfriend and now I'm here" she stopped, looked at her feet then grinned up at the sky.

I stood up and linked my arm in hers, "okay well I think that we should find Becca and get home, I smiled apologetically at Bradie and he stood up as well.

"I suppose I better find someone to give me a lift home" he laughed mostly to himself,

"I could give you a lift if you wanted, I just have to get Becca" I held my breath until he answered, "That would be great, thanks" he smiled and linked his arm through my free one.

We walked towards where willow told us they had been sitting but there was no one there; we started in a different direction when i heard a noise coming from one of the close by trees,

"Becca?" I called out,

"Here I am" she shouted in reply.

I ran over to the figure near the tree, she was leaning up against the trunk half asleep. Bradie helped me lift her up and we made our way out to the exit. After about another half an hour we finally made it back to Beccas small silver car.

Bradie strapped Becca into one of the back seats and willow hopped into the other, as I was getting into the driver's seat Becca made a strange squealing noise from the back.

"Where about do you want to be dropped off' I asked Bradie, he looked at me and I saw a flash of worry cross through his eyes,

"Um, I can just walk home from your house" and with that he turned to look out the window.

After about fifteen minutes of driving Becca made another sound then tried to climb into the front, "I know you" she said slyly grinning at Bradie,

He looked at her oddly, "really, what a small world", Becca stoped there perched between the passengers and driver's seat for about three minutes then burst out laughing " I have a picture of you on my wall "she said still grinning.

"Get back into your seatbelt" I yelled at her "and stop creeping Bradie out" she did as she was told then I half looked at Bradie and half watched the road "sorry about that, shes usually a really nice girl but obviously she's had alot to drink" I laughed and so did he "It's okay" he said.

For the rest of the drive home, Me and Bradie talked about stuff while trying to control Becca in the back seat but when we where about 10 mins from Willows house, which was around the corner from mine she fell sound asleep on top of willow who was sitting there smiling out her window into the darkness

After we stopped at Willows and got her inside, we pulled up in front of my house and we got out, I pulled open Beccas door and help her out, Bradie came around and helped me steady her,

"Thank you for the ride, I owe you a favour now" he said smiling, he leaned in and hugged me then Becca decided she wanted to join in and wrapped her arms around both of us, Bradie pulled away "bye" he said then lingered for a moment before turning to leave.

I quickly unwrapped myself from Beccas arms and she sat down on the footpath, "Wait!" I called out to Bradies back, he stopped and I quickly walked towards him, I searched around in my bag until I found a pen and then reached out and grabbed his arms.

"Here's my number in case you ever need another ride" I said grinning at him, he stood still while I wrote on his arm and when I was finished he thanked me again and turned to go again, I considered waiting until he got a little bit further away then hopping in my car and following him to see where he lived but then thought better of my creepy stalker idea.

I picked Becca up by her arm and helped her to my room, I took of her shoes and put her in my bed then I went to my wardrobe and got out a jacket then walked out into the backyard and climbed up in the tree house that Kevin had built for Patrick but he doesn't like it.

I put my phone and the other things that were in my pocket next to my head and laid down, there was a square cut out of the middle of the roof so I could see the stars, My eyes started closing until I fell asleep, but I was awoken minutes later to the sound of my phone chiming, I looked at the screen but all it said was _unknown number, _

"Hello" I said quietly,

"Um, hey it's me Bradie" there was a pause "what have you been doing?"

I laughed "well considering I was standing out the front of my house with you under an hour ago, not much I suppose except put Becca into bed."

"How come you're not asleep" he asked in almost a whisper,

"Because I'm not tired" I said only then realizing how tired I actually was,

"Okay well I suppose I'll let you get some sleep then or whatever" they way he spoke made him shy but confident at the same time,

"Okay goodnight "I said,

"Goodnight" he said and with that we both hung up.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

I woke up with the sun beaming down on me, I rolled over and looked out the door of the tree house, Becca was sitting at a small table near the back door reading the paper.

"Good morning, sunshine!" I called from up in the tree house, she looked up and smiled.

I climbed down and pulled up a seat next to her, "So did you have fun last night?" I asked, she laughed "Well to tell you the truth I don't actually remember much after we split up"

That meant she didn't remember meeting Bradie, I considered telling her but I thought it would be better to see what was happening between us first.

We had breakfast and watched some TV until Becca was alright to drive home, "thanks for letting me stay, I think that was one of the best nights of my life" she said flashing her dazzling smile than laughing, I waved as she drove away.

***

**Bradie's Point of view**

When I woke up the next morning, everything that happened last night came flooding back to me, I got out of bed and went to get some breakfast,

"You're up early" I said to my step brother and also band member Andy,

"It's four in the afternoon actually" he said matter of factly, I looked at the clock on the lounge room wall, "well so it is" I replied in the same tone.

I walked over to the cupboard and got out the box of fruit loops, I put them in a bowl and went to get some milk, "there's none left" Andy said evil grinning, " well what am I suppose to do now" I asked annoyed, "you could use juice" he replied dead serious. I stopped and looked at him for a minute to see if he was joking and when I realized he wasn't I pulled out the carton of orange juice and poured some into my bowl, surprisingly it tasted alright.

"So who was that girl you ditched us for last night?" Andy asked glaring at me, "Just a friend I met at the music store a couple of days ago" I replied innocently, "it sure looked alot more than that" he said smiling at what he thought was a joke, "What ever " I said turning away.

I walked into my room and sat on my bed, I picked up my phone and considered if I should send Lucy a message, I thought for a while, defiantly not she would think I was a stalker.

I went on twitter and had 473 reply's, but I didn't really feel like sending out hundreds of messages saying '_ily too :D' _so instead I tweeted _'had an awesome night last night seen so many of you great fans' _I put my phone down and sat there thinking,

I knew Lucy had heard of short stack from her friend Becca, But had she really never seen a picture of us, I mean she could easily be some psycho, crazy stalker fan who has been plotting this for years or she could be a really nice girl, who could really like me for who I was and not what I am.

I picked up my phone and dialled Lucy's number; it took her three rings to answer,

"Hello" she said,

"Hey Lucy its Bradie" I said happily,

"Hey, how are you?"She asked, "I'm good, I was wondering if you wanted to do something tomorrow?" I waited for an answer,

"umm, sorry I can't tomorrow, but defiantly another time "she said apologetically, "That's okay, call me if you want to do something "I told her, "okay, bye "she replied and hung up.

***

**Lucy's point of view**

"Who was that?" I turned to my mum, "just a friend asking if I wanted to do something tomorrow" I told her, "What are you doing?"she asked in her fake happy voice, "you know what I'm doing tomorrow, I'm going to visit Ashley" she turned to face out the window, "you don't have too "she said quietly, I glared at her angrily "How could you say that, she's been in there for a year now and you've only ever visited her like ten times, She's your daughter but you act like she's some stranger, if anything making her stay there is making her worse" I turned and stomped back to my bedroom slamming my door shut behind me.

Some days I hated my mum and today was one of them, she thinks that because she has a new boyfriend, everything that happened in the past wasn't real, but there's no denying that our lives are pretty stuffed up and she can pretend all she wants but it won't change the fact that Ashley's in the hospital or that dad has left us and isn't coming back.

I sat on the floor in the middle of my room, I felt so bad saying no to Bradie, but tomorrow was really important to me and to Ashley, I couldn't just bail on her, I crawled over to my wardrobe door and tugged it open, I moved some shoes until I found the yellow and purple shoe box, I lifted the lid and looked inside at the photograph of me and Ashley when we were younger, I was holding Patrick when he was first born, a tear slipped from my eye and landed straight on top of Ashley's face, I slammed the lid back of the box and put it back into the cupboard.

I went to the front door and put on my shoes, when I opened the door a gust of wind nearly blew it shut back in my face, after I was about halfway down the street trickles of rain started running down my cheeks and my arms, I ran to a nearby bus stop and pulled my hood up over my head.

After sitting there for what felt like hours, something moving down the road caught my eye, I looked up and saw a figure hopping out of a car and another person hopped out of the passengers side and they both went around to the boot, After getting out some guitar and other music related things, one of them turned around and it all clicked.

I got up and started to walk towards them, the one who had gotten out of the passengers side looked up at me, he smiled, then followed me with his eyes as I walked around to Bradie "Bradie you have an admirer" he said smugly.

Bradie turned to face me "hey" he said surprised,

"You know her?" Shaun said looking at me, "I sure do, Shaun this is Lucy, Lucy this is Shaun." I smiled at him.

"Are you okay" Bradie asked suddenly taking in my appearance, he came and put his arm around me, I looked up at him "yer, I was just walking and it started to rain, I was at that bus stop and then I saw you guys" I looked back at Shaun and smiled.

"Um do you want to come inside" he asked, I was still looking at Shaun and I saw him shoot a look at Bradie, I turned to face Bradie, "No thank you, I have to go" I turned and walked away.

When I got home it was already dark and I went straight to my bathroom and had a shower, when I got out and walked into my bedroom I was startled to see Patrick sitting on the floor,

"Hey, Pat watcha doing?" I raised my eyebrow at him; He stood up and walked out.

I put on my pyjamas and climbed into my bed.

When my alarm went off the next morning it was still dark, I had a shower and pulled on a pair of jeans and my Paramore singlet and put my stuff in a backpack and hopped into my car, it was a three hour drive to the institute where Ashley was and I wanted to get there at the start of visiting hours.

I tried to visit Ashley as much as I could and usually went there once week, but it was a long drive along a quite bush road which freaked me out a little when it was still dark, but once I got there it was always worth it.

When I was about an hour away from the hospital, I stopped at a petrol station and went inside to get something to drink.

I walked towards the glowing fridge and stared at the assortment of brightly coloured drinks, I picked the only one that looked moderately healthy and went to pay for it, when I got to the counter there was no one there so I rang a little bell and waited.

I was standing next to a rack of magazines and glanced past them, but looked back quickly at one in particular, "Can I help you?" I turned towards the voice and there was a lady in her mid twenty's smiling friendly at me, "just this please" I said handing her my drink, I looked back at the magazines but couldn't find the picture again, but I had to have been imagining it because why would there be a picture of Bradie and his friend Shaun and his Brother Andy on the front of a glossy magazine.

When I got back in my car I put all the windows down and left them down until I reached the hospital, pulling into the car park I got a space right up near the front door and went into the reception.

They always had freezing cold air conditioning blaring throughout the hospital and I always made sure I brought a jumper; I also had a special bag I always brought with me that had a special section in the bottom that I could hide stuff in to sneak to Ashley.

The nurse in the reception checked my i.d then took me to Ashley's room, it was about the size of a regular bedroom and had white walls and white sheets, there was no wardrobe because she had to wear the clothes the hospital supplied her and she wasn't allowed to have anything else beside a chair.

She wasn't in her room so the nurse took me to the common room where there was a handful of other patients, but Ashley wasn't there either, as I turned around to look outside, I ran into Dr Andrew,

"How are you Lucy?"He said in his wise voice,

"I'm fine, how's Ashley going?"I asked '

"She's doing alot better, it's always a very tough time for someone after they try and take their own life but she is doing alot better, she's actually had a young man visiting her regularly this week" he said smiling,

I raised one of my eyebrows at him "really, I'll have to find out more about that" I said smiling "where is she?" I looked towards the door,

"I think she's under the tree in the middle of the oval" I thanked him, and went towards the door, I had to wait for a nurse to put in a code to open the door and when it finally opened I was hit by a rush of warm air.

I squinted into the glare and looked around for Ashley; I saw her sitting on a bench by herself under a giant tree.

She looked the same as last time I was here, which had been over a month, she still had waist length light brown hair, pale skin and giant green eyes, when she was born I had always been jealous of her everybody always commented on how beautiful she was, that was until last February.

It all happened so quickly, first I was leaving to go to school and next I was at home by myself for a week until mum finally explained what happened, after I had left for school Ashley had tried to kill herself but mum had come back home to get something she forgot and found her in her bedroom, she called the ambulance and they were able to save her.

And as a result she has to stay in an institution until a doctor says she is safe to be on her own.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

I sat down next to Ashley. "Hey, how are you?"

She turned to face me "I'm fine. I'm ready to go home, you know." she looked at me, pleading with her eyes.

She has been telling mum for the last three months that she's ready to come home, but every time mum comes up with a reason good enough to keep her in here. I decided to change the subject.

"What's this I hear about a boy visiting you?" I smiled slyly at her.

"Who told you that?" she whipped her head around and was now giving me her full attention.

"A little birdie," I teased.

She looked down sadly, "I know what you're thinking, and he isn't my boyfriend."

I became my serious self again, "Who is he?" I asked really wanting to know,

"He's my friend Kathy's brother. I started talking to him one day when he was here visiting her and we just really got along." she looked around to check if anyone was looking at us "And he gave me this," she put her arm up the bottom of her top and pulled out a disk with _Short Stack_ written on it in messy handwriting. "It's this band called Short Stack. I can't believe I have never heard of them before!" I smiled at her as she put the CD back up her top.

"Well make sure they don't find that CD otherwise you'll get in alot of trouble".

After we had lunch in the hospital cafeteria, I said goodbye to Ashley and told her I would talk to mum. I went out into the car park and for a split second couldn't remember what my car looked like. I had been driving for about an hour and a half along the quite bush road when my car made a loud clanking noise; I squealed then pulled over to the side of the road.

I got out my phone and called my Mum, after the third attempt I assumed she was busy, next I tried Kevin, and his went straight to voice mail. I looked down at my phone. The next person on my recent calls list was Bradie. I considered it for a moment then pressed the green button.

"Hello?" he answered on the first ring.

"Hey Bradie its Lucy...um would you be able to do me a huge favour?" I waited for his reply.

"Haha, of course. What can I do for you?" he asked sounding generally happy.

"Well I was driving and my car made a weird noise and now it won't start, so I need someone to pick me up!"

I told him where I was and he said he would be there as soon as possible, so I thought I might as well make use of my spare time and try and get some sort of tan to my overly pale skin. I climbed up first onto the bonnet of my car and then up onto the roof, where the sun had already gently warmed it.

After I had shooed away about thirty million flies, I heard a car coming up the road ahead. I lifted the top of my body up onto my elbows and looked to see what was coming. A nice looking black car pulled around the corner and swerved onto my side of the road to pull over.

"Hey, Lucy," he called as he was getting out of his car.

"Hello, thank you so, so much for picking me up. Nobody in my family would answer their phones. For all they know I could be getting kidnapped by evil spies this very moment and they don't even care!"

He laughed, "Are you always this dramatic?" he said smiling as he looked at my car "I think were best off just leaving it here and coming to pick it up later."

"Okay, "I smiled and walked around to the passenger's seat of his car.

He had a nice car for a guy who lived in my suburb and his only source of income was his 'band', it had smooth black leather seats and it felt like he must have had the air conditioning on because they were about -10 degrees.

"Nice car" I said to him as he hopped into the driver's seat, he shrugged "thanks".

I sat there picking at my black and pink nail polish, thinking about that night at Counting the stars music festival, when Bradie suddenly started talking, "What where you doing all the way out here" he looked at me and then back at the road, I considered his question for a moment too long before deciding to lie, "I was looking for wombats" I said quickly then shook my head when I realised how stupid it sounded,

He looked at me like he truly believed it, "Why were you looking for wombats?" he asked with interest, "Um I just really wanted to see a baby one because I haven't seen one before" I smiled and looked out the window indicating that the conversation was over.

When we were nearly home and our long conversation about wildlife had ended, Bradie asked me if I wanted to come to his house seeing as no one was home at mine, I automatically went to decline but then thought why not, I really, really like him and he seems to have some sort of interest in me so why shouldn't I try to make him fall head over heels for me, "I would love too, thanks" I said grinning.

When he pulled into his driveway, a girl who had been sitting in the gutter jumped up and ran toward Bradie, "Is Andy here!?" she asked frantically, I noticed she had a shirt on that appeared to say 'i NY' but actually said 'I aNdY' I laughed a little bit too loud, she snapped her head around, "who are you?" she sneered, I opened my mouth stunned, what had I done to upset this girl.

Bradie grabbed my hand and pulled me inside, "Was that your brother's girlfriend?" I asked once we were inside, "haha, more like stalker" he said laughing, I figured they might of had a bad break up or something so I didn't ask any more questions.

He showed me where his bedroom was and said to wait there while he went and got some food, his room had a giant window at the front and light blue walls, on the wall near the door there was a double bed and the rest of the room was filled up with musical equipment.

I walked over to a guitar and picked it up, I strummed the chords to a song I had wrote when I was about 13 and smiled at myself when I still remembered it perfectly, "I didn't know you played" I spun around and Bradie was standing in the doorway holding two plates with sandwiches on them, "I don't anymore I used to when I was younger" I spluttered and put the guitar down onto the bed.

"So?" I said as I ate my sandwich, "When will I be able to hear your band? Have you done any gigs yet? ", he looked at me for a moment "um, yeah we've done some gigs, we actually have an album" he looked at me like he was waiting for me to realise something, "cool, what is it called?"I waited for him to reply; "stack is the new black" I cracked up laughing then stopped "Wait, what did you say your band was called", "um actually I didn't, Short Stack" he looked at me uncertain as everything became clear in my head "Oh My God!" I said.

I hopped up of the bed "Short Stack, as in the band that Becca talks about every half a minute", he smiled at me and shrugged, "How come you didn't tell me you had a million girls already in love with you?" I looked at him, "sorry, I just liked the fact that you liked me for who I actually was and not because of the band I'm in or my hair" I sighed, "I have to go", I walked out the door into the hall way,

"Wait!, I'm sorry I should of told you it was stupid of me to lie, I'm sorry" I looked back at him and quickly looked away, "Bye" I said before walking out the front door onto the street.

When I got home I sat on my bed, I considered calling Becca and telling her about it but then thought of the hour of screaming I would have to listen too, I then remembered in the car on the way home from the festival when Becca was screaming that she new Bradie and I told her to stop scaring him, but all she was doing was telling the truth and he was the one that was lying.

I walked into the kitchen and made a piece of toast, after 10 minutes of staring at a repeat of Gossip Girl my phone started to ring, it was Becca,

"Hey" I said "how are you?" , "I'm good" she replied "are you okay? You sound quite" I paused for a second,

"Um can you please come over, I have something to tell you" I asked,

"Okay, sure I'll be right there" she hung up straight away and about ten minutes later she was knocking on my front door.

"What is it?" she said as soon as I opened the door,

I lead her into my room and sat down on my bed "do you remember anything at all from the night when we came home from the music festival?" she got a worried look on her face "um like I told you not really, I kind of remember dropping Willow off, um and was there somebody else in the car?" I shrugged "Well that was actually what I wanted to talk to you about, there was somebody else in the car, that guy I was talking to on the phone the other day", "yes..." she replied curiously "Well he turned out to be somebody different to who I thought he was, umm do you know a guy called Bradie Webb?" I bit my lip as Becca burst out laughing "Nice try, like I'm actually going to believe that you have been hooking up with the hottest guy on earth" she made a snorting noise and then her face dropped as she saw how serious I was "Oh My God!, Are you telling the truth?!" she jumped up off the bed and started to squeal, she walked towards the door and I thought she was going to leave but instead she picked up my phone and started doing something on it, "Can I call him?!" she said in a voice a bit too loud for inside, I jumped up off the bed and snatched the phone out of her hand "No!" I'm just going to have a break from him for a while" I said frowning.

It took me over an hour to calm Becca down and then she freaked out again when she realised she had been in the same car as him, she then asked if she could sleepover but I told her I needed to be alone for a while, and anyway I knew she would just wait for me to go to sleep, then take my phone and call Bradie.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

After Becca left, I made some dinner and called Mum again to see where they were. She answered on the last ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Mum, it's me. Where are you?" I asked accusingly.

She made a huffing sound. "I'm with Patrick at Play Group. We'll be home soon." and with that, she hung up.

I went to my bedroom and sat cross-legged on the floor.

**Bradie's POV**

After she left, I ran to the front door and opened it up, but she was already half way down the street.

"Shut up." Andy whined. I turned around and saw him slinking into the kitchen, wearing only a pair of track pants. I followed after him and sat at the kitchen bench.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked, taking in my expression.

"She found out about us," I said, sighing.

"You don't expect me to believe that she had never heard of Short Stack." he sneered.

"She didn't, and then she just realised, and then she stormed off. She's angry because I didn't tell her the truth about being famous." I looked up at Andy; his eyebrow was raised.

"So you're telling me she didn't know you were from Short Stack!"

I shook my head and walked away. Shaun was sitting on the couch with pencils tucked behind both his ears, and was concentrating hard on a notepad sitting on his leg.

"She'll be back." he said without looking up.

"Hopefully," I said, sitting down next to him.

**Lucy's POV**

When I woke up next morning, I was still on my bedroom floor and wearing the clothes from yesterday. I was meant to go visit Ashley today, but I didn't feel up to it, so instead, I called her.

"Hello, Mental Health Institution, Mary speaking, how can I help you?" asked a lady in a robot-like manner.

"Hello, could I please speal to Ashley Stevenson?" I asked.

"I'll be right back." she said, then left to transfer me through to her section of the hospital.

After talking to three more nurses, I finally heard Ashley's voice.

"Where are you?" she asked in an excited, but disappointed, voice.

"I'm not coming in today. I have something I have to deal with." I said.

"That's okay. Is there anything I can help you with?" she asked. I decided that I wouldn't tell her yet, because I knew she would want me to bring him in to meet her, and I just couldn't share that much of my life with him right now.

"Um...I don't think so. I'll fill you in when I come visit next."

My plan was to get dressed, go back to Bradie's house, and apologise for getting so angry over something that wasn't that big of a deal, but when it took me three hours to decide what top to wear, I decided I would give it another day. Instead, I ended up looking after Patrick while Mum and Kevin went out for dinner.

I put Patrick to bed, then turned on my laptop. I was curious to find out how famous Short Stack really was. I went to Google and typed in _'Bradie Webb'_. There were 1,720,000 search results, so I just clicked on the first one and his Twitter came up.

When it had finished loading, I was surprised to see that his last update was from this morning, and it said; -_possibly just made the biggest mistake of my life :(_

After looking at several more websites, I looked up at my clock. It said 2:34am. I looked out my window and it was pitch black, except for the street light. I closed my laptop and went to sleep.

***

"Crap!"

My eyes shot open. Becca was standing in the corner of my room, holding my phone. I sat up.

"Hey there, Sleepy Head," she said quite frantically. "I thought I left something here, and I was coming to check. Bye!" she smiled and turned to go.

I jumped out of bed. "Not so fast!" I screamed, jumping on her and grabbing my phone. "You're a stalker." I said, bursting out laughing. "Look, I have a surprise for you, and I need your help. Just let me get dressed." she nodded and sat on my bed, turning on my laptop.

After I had decided to wear a loose purple dress and my light pink, studded heels, I walked back to where Becca was sitting.

"Okay, this is the plan; we drive to Bradie's house and park up the street. You go and knock on his door and give him this piece of paper," I handed her the piece of paper I had written the note on last night. It said;

_Bradie, sorry I left so quickly, and I'm sorry because I have thought about it and I can understand where you're coming from. Please meet me at the cafe near the beach at 12:00, and we can sort this out,_

_Love Lucy, xx_

"Okay, so is that all?" she asked with excitement glinting in her eyes. I nodded and we walked out to my car.

We stopped about four houses up the road and I showerd her which one was his. She squealed and took a photo of it. I noticed that girl who I thought must have been Shaun's ex-girlfriend, but was obviously just a fan sitting in the gutter again. I wondered why she chose to sit there so much of the time when he didn't even live there.

"Okay, I'm ready now." she said, taking deep breaths. I laughed and watched as she walked up his drive way and knocked on his door. About three minutes later Bradie's face appeared at the door and he smiled his beautiful smile when he saw who it was. After about ten minutes of talking and Becca repeatedly taking photos of him, he walked out onto the street and looked diretly at me. I quickly ducked down, but I knew there was no hope. He had definitely seen me, so I sat back up.

"Hey," I said, smiling. I looked at Becca, who was still holding the piece of paper. I got out of the car.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at me strangely.

"Not much, just sitting." I looked around nervously.

"I'm sorry!" we both said at the same time. I smiled and reached out to hug him. Becca took a photo and I burst out laughing.  
"Do you want to come inside?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure. Becca, you can take my car home if you want." she nodded, and I followed Bradie inside.

He showed me where the loungeroom was and said to wait there, and that he would be right back. When I walked in, the blonde guy from the super market, which I now knew as Andy, was sitting on the lounge. He looked up at me and smiled. "Well, hello there. I don't believe we've met. I'm Andy," he said, raising both of his eyebrows and grinning at me. I smiled back with a strange look on my face and sat down next to him.

"So, I hear you've stolen young Bradie's heart." he continued, still grinning. I laughed just as Bradie came back in.

"This is Andy, Andy, this is Lucy." he said, motioning toward us.

"I think I already know that, considering she's all you've talked about for the last three days." he said, smirking. Bradie shoved him off the lounge and he fell onto the floor, hitting his head on the coffee table. I gasped and reached down to help him up, but he stood up, laughing and left the room.

"He sure is something." I said, laughing, but when I looked at Bradie he was looking at me intently, and I stared straight back at him.

"I'm glad you came back." he said. I smiled and grabbed both his hands. Wee both leaned in, and I closed my eyes. The kiss lasted for about three minutes, and when we pulled apart Andy was standing there, smiling. I raised an eyebrow at him and Bradie just shook his head.

Bradie dropped me off at home about an hour later, and we had arranged to go to a concert in the city that night. As soon as he dropped me off, I ran to my cupboard and started deciding what I was going to wear. I arranged seven different outfits, then decided that I didn't like any of them, so I called in the back up.

"I'm here!" Becca screamed, running through my front door and straight past me, into my bedroom. I laughed and stood up to follow her. When I walked in, she had already started pulling things out of my wardrobe. I sat on the bed.

"You know what?" she said, turning around to face me.

"What?" I replied, waiting for her answer.

"I've spent my whole life searching for someone that could compare to my beloves Shaun Diviney, and I haven't even come close to finding anyone, and then you just happen to make a real life version of Bradie Webb fall in love with you, and you didn't even know what you were getting yourself into." she smiled, but I considered what she said very seriously.

"You're right, but what happens if he gets to know me better, and then he realises that he doesn't like me because I didn't even know who he was, and that he would rather be with a girl that actually knows things about him?" I asked, starting to make myself upset.

Becca sat down next to me and put her arm around my shoulder. "Trust me. That will never happen. I can tell by the way he was talking about you today he truly likes you, and anyway, what's the fun in a relationship if one of you already knows everything about the other person?" she grinned at me, and I smiled back, but now I knew that I would always have that worry in the back of my mind -- that he would fall in love with one of his many adoring fans, and leave me standing alone by myself.

After three more hours of Becca helping me with my hair and make-up and putting the finishing touches on my outfit, it was time for her to leave because Bradie was going to be there to pick me up soon, and I didn't want her there to freak him out.

When it was exactly five o'clock, I went out the front and sat on the step until he pulled up. His car was freezing when I hopped in, and I wished I had chosen to wear a warmer outfit.

"Nice to see you again." he said, smiling. "You look really pretty." I smiled and he grabbed my hand and put his other one on the steering wheel and started to drive.

I tried to think about warm, but nothing helped, and my whole body started to shake. "Are you cold?" he asked as he leaned to turn down the air conditioning.

"A little, thanks." but even after ten minutes of no air conditioning, I still couldn't seem to stop shaking. He pulled into the venue car park and sat in a line of about twenty other cars waiting to get in. He took off his seatbelt and then took off his jacket and put it over my shoulders.

"Do you ever wish that I had known who you were when I first met you?" I asked all of a sudden. He considered my question.

"To tell you the truth, not really, because I know that you like me for who I am, and not because you're in love with who you think I am, and I also have that piece of mind that you're not going to cut off all of my hair when I'm sleeping and sell it on eBay." he chuckled and grabbed my hand again.

We were going to see a band called All Time Low, which I had been in love with for the past couple of years, and was trying to hide my excitement, even though I had already seen them live more than six times.

The line was pretty big, but we got inside quickly. "Do you want anything to drink?" he asked when we walked past the bar.

"No, thank you, I'm right." I said politely, and we walked up to the area that had the least people near the stage.

The show started and it was absolutely amazing. People were pushing at me from all directions and we were all jumping in time to the music, but not once through the whole show did Bradie let go of my hand, and not once did my smile leave my face.

After another couple of hours, it was over and we joined the queue to leave the building. As I was walking toward the door, Bradie suddenly tugged at my arm and pulled me to the direction of a side door, just up a small walkway.

"I don't think we're meant to be here." I said, looking behind us, but no one seemed to mind.

I giggled as he spin me around and leaned me up against one of the white walls. I put my arms around his neck and he placed his arms around my back. "I think this is the best night of my life." I said, bring my face closer to his and kissing the tip of his nose.


End file.
